Commerce of Cohesion

[The Delamater Twins]

The Rat's Pack, Decker
October 25, 2517 - Beaumonde
1:14 PM Local Time

“The Rat’s Pack” stood in the same way it always did. At the very end of the street it was on, towering over the other buildings there. The large, well painted, warehouse had the hologram of a rodent carrying a bag out front with the name of the business over it. The metal street was gray and people walked in every direction. There were other smaller businesses on that street, but none stood out like ‘The Rat’s Pack’.

Just inside of the door, which was the size of a regular door to a smaller building, Alexis was smoking a cigarette and organized something and was fiddling with a stool that was there. Something was off with the leg, and it made it wobble. Until a few minutes earlier it had been working absolutely perfectly, but now it creaking and shaking every time she shifted her weight.

Alexis had the stool tilted over and she was trying to adjust it, but something had clearly broken off and rolled where she couldn’t see it. So she was going from sitting to standing, in an attempt to see if it was going to work. But it was all amounting to nothing.

”Erin!” She yelled. ”Have you been ‘fuckin’ with the stool!?” There was no answer and she went back to working on it.

A black tarp over the ceiling at the entry way gave the illusion that the ceiling was much shorter then it was throughout the warehouse. It gave a more homelike feel, and was less industrially intimidating the Twins found. Behind the counter there was a doorway without a door, and through it shelves were visible.

Alexis gave up on the stool and just sat down on it. I’ll just get a new one. she thought as she began working on a small electronic device.

[Ilana Logan]

Ilana drove the mule off of the ship in Decker on Beaumonde stopping at the bottom to close up the cargo bay door. Ray, Jay, Marcus, Lulah, and Jace were all aboard, ready to go. As she climbed back behind the wheel of the mule, she smelled fuel, and dust, and a very faint scent of food from somewhere nearby. She started driving in the direction of the shop. She'd never been there before, so she hadn't know what to expect, but Ray had told her this would be the place to find some of the... not so easily aquired items she was looking for. He'd never actually been here, but he'd heard of it one way or another.

Didn't much matter to her how he'd found the place. The fact that he had was enough for her. She thought it was called something like the Rat Pack. Maybe Rat's Pack. It was something close enough to that, that she knew she'd be able to find it easy enough. I'll have to do something nice for him in return, she thought, not knowing yet what she was going to do, only that she was going to do something.

As she drove, she looked around, looking at the people in the area. It didn't look like a dangerous place. Of course, looks could be deceiving so she didn't know for sure. Of course, like everywhere, there were shady looking people, but she knew first hand that just because a person looks shady doesn't mean they are, and just because something looks shiny doesn't mean it is. There were also people that looked like they'd been following a shepherd all their lives and then some.

The crowd, which wasn't huge surrounding the fairly short buildings in comparison to the ones in Bellforge, was very diverse. There weren't many people that looked like they were from the core, but there were a couple. She was pretty sure she saw a female companion wander by on the arm of some arrogant looking man, though the woman could have been a high class doxy just as easily.

High class doxy... now that's a hell of an idea right there. About like sayin nice alliance officer, she thought. Somethin bein possible don't make it likely.

She came upon the place, knowing already what she wanted for the most part. She'd made a list, and she had no intention of deviating from it. Although, what she plans and what actually takes place ain't ever been similar so there was hardly a reason to think she could stick to a plan this time.

She sighed, wondering exactly she'd become so damned cynical. The fact that she wondered made her think it had probably been a gradual change, but she hadn't noticed a change until it was already fully there. She parked the mule near the building and turned it off, then climbed down and went to the building.

She didn't look behind her to make sure the others were following, she just assumed they were. She opened the door and walked inside, noting how different she'd expected the inside of the building to look.

The ceiling was much shorter than she'd thought it would be from the outside, or at least it appeared to be. There was a woman behind a counter fiddling with some device that Ilana didn't recognize from the doorway. She walked to the counter the woman was behind and saw it was an electronic of some sort.

Not wanting to waste any time staring at the woman, Ilana just jumped right in and started speaking. "Hello. My name is Ilana Logan. I worked for Longstreet until his recent passing, handling basically whatever he needed me and my crew to do. Now I'm working for his right hand man Carl, and my crew and I need a few things. I'm told this is where I can... acquire them."

Ilana slid a list across the counter and added, "Many of the things on the list are common items, easily obtained, but there are a few that are more.... difficult to find."

---

Items on the List

• Assault rifle - 150c
  
• Ammo, Armor Piercing (50) - 20c
  
• Scope, Ocular - 14c
  
• Laser sight - 4c
  
• Trigger Lock (2) - 22c
  
• Grenade, Concussion (5) - 10c
  
• Grenade, Flashbang (5) - 5c
  
• Grenade, Incendiary (5) - 15c
  
• Grenade, Smoke (5) - 5c
  
• Duster, Armored - 6c
  
• Cookset - 4c
  
• Fresh fruit (4) - 2c
  
• Protein chips (5) - 2c
  
• Snack bar (10) - 1c
  
• Gun Vac Case - 3c
  
• Fusion Torch - 2c
  
• Paint set - 1c
  
• Charcoal set - 1c
  
• Canvases and paper - 1c
  
• Goggles - 1c
  
• Restraints - 20c
  
• Rucksack - 2c
  
• Gamebox - 7c
  
• Smart paper - 1c

[Ray Hudson]

Icy air blew smoothly into Ray's face and he kept his eyes closed while he enjoyed the breeze. The entire group was on the mule with him and he kept quiet the entire ride. Ray had preferred to keep quiet during rides such as those and take in everything they pass.

The strobing neon blurring as they zoom down to their destination while faces become emotionless sketches by their speed. You focus on something for a fleeting moment before it's lost and replaced by another impermanent site of minuscule interest. Landmarks didn't interest Ray as much as the people did. Driving down the street leaves you with countless assumptions of people you'll neve come to know and these assumptions become that persons identity in your own narcissistic reality. A person who jaywalks is satan while a man carrying his daughter on his shoulders becomes 'Father of the Year'.

Families caught Ray's eye the most. Where someone might be drawn towards the decrepit homeless man yelling at his empty backpack, Ray would be drawn towards the hand holding mommy and daddy who swing their child back and forth between them. A woman yelling at her daughter in front of an outlet store would do laps around his head for hours while he would try to discover the enigma of 'what was said.'

The group was headed out to get supplies at 'The Rat's Pack' from the black market, red headed twins. Ray knew about the Twins through Morse but he never met them directly or even speak to them in person but that wouldn't be a problem. The Twins had a good reputation around town and they could get them what they needed.

A shimmering hologram of a rat holding a bag proved that they had arrived and the mule stopped in front of the large warehouse. After hoping off of the mule Ray put a hand in his pocket and followed Ilana. Ray's black coat didn't feel as heavy as it did yesterday and he had more of a stride in his step. Sauntering through the door after Ilana, Ray saw the woman with courageous crimson hair sitting and messing with something electronic. She was smoking indoors and the smell distracted his other senses.

Ilana approached the counter and Ray followed behind her, looking up at the tarp above them. Once they were at the counter Ilana told the woman her full name and her history with the local crime lords. She sounded to 'business' and Ray cocked an eyebrow at her as she slid her sons christmas list across the counter. He thought that she might have been uncomfortable and he knew that she didn't have much experience with buying items like they were. Ray had dealt with black market dealers before and there wasn't anything really wrong with how Ilana was acting he just felt that it seemed unnatural. Worst case scenario was that the woman behind the counter, Erin or Alexis, would start suspecting that Ilana was a cop and he highly doubted that. Ray gently touched Ilana's shoulder and leaned close to her ear, pulling he backward slightly.

"Try not to be so formal. You look like a teenager tryin' to buy her first box of tampons." Ray whispered, his breath delightfully fresh from the mint he had consumed earlier. He smiled and patted her shoulder before taking his hand off of it. Ray wondered if he could have phrased that better but he assumed it came off lighthearted.

[Ilana Logan]

As she stood there after sliding the list across the counter to the woman, she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder and she felt herself being pulled back a little toward the person behind her. Her first instinct was to tense up for a fight, but she forced herself to relax because she knew the only people behind her were members of her own crew. She heard Ray's voice whispering in her ear, and the scent of peppermint came to her with his words. "Try not to be so formal. You look like a teenager tryin' to buy her first box of tampons."

Ilana felt her face heat up quickly until she felt as though she'd been standing with her face inside of an oven, and she felt her stomach start doing gymnastics of its own accord. She could only imagine the crimson color her face had undoubtedly turned. Knowing how red her face must be only served to embarrass her further and she fought to contain it. There weren't many things that caused Ilana Logan to blush, but a man mentioning anything about that time of the month always got her. At twenty seven years old, a man mentioning anything to do with it made her want to crawl in a hole. She hated that, but she couldn't help it.

Against her will, her mind went back to that day on Lilac, fourteen years ago. It had happened for the first time on the walk home from school. Her sister Natalia had given her a sweater to tie around her waist until they got home, but her little brother John, who had been only eight, had run home screaming that Ilana was dying on the road. Her mother had came tearing out of the house, terrified that her daughter had been run over, or shot, just in time to see a beet red Ilana walking up the driveway mortified, before she realized what had happened. Her mother had whipped John for that, even though her hadn't known any better.

She came out of the memory wishing she hadn't remembered that. It only made her embarrassment worse, even though she was the only one here that knew that had ever happened. She knew Ray had been discreet, if incredibly crude, and it helping knowing that the others probably hadn't heard, but not much. The crudeness was just Ray's way, but that did nothing to help the mortified feeling in her gut either. She felt him pat her shoulder softly before removing his hand altogether. She closed her eyes for barely longer than a blink to give herself a bare second to let it go and move on. When she opened her eyes, she discovered her face was still burning an angry red from Ray's comment. She probably looked like someone had slapped her on both cheeks, more than a couple times.

Still fighting embarrassment, she swallowed hard and muttered softly, "I'll try to remember that."

She returned her full attention back to the woman across the counter from her and tried to ignore her red cheeks and the feeling that came with it. The feeling that everyone in the room knew what had made her feel like she was thirteen again, even though she knew they didn't.

[Jace "Original Zest"]

Loving the fresh air all around Jace couldn't help but be thrilled being here. This was the weather he was used to and nothing better but a trip to a good market. Places where the alliance's authority still dared not reach or at least with little success. Jace hadn't heard of this particular market but Jace had spent little or almost no time in Beaumonde besides this trip. He would be glad to get back to the ship to fly out. He got home sick if he wasn't flying for too long. As the mule came to a halt in front of a lot of short buildings. Jace thought to himself that this area seemed a strange place to hold such a facility. He just kept his eyes on the few people in the crowd though trying to find anyone with prying eyes towards the group. Feeling satisfied he followed the group into the shop and was surprised by the inside as much as he was at the location. It was strange to him why it seemed so small. Jace quietly grunted cause of his disbelief of anything the ship needed could even be in this tiny ass place.

Hearing Ilana speaking to the woman behind the counter Jace just fiddled with his pistols and watched the door. From the sound of Ilana's voice she seemed uneasy Jace just ignored it though and kept looking at the door and he glanced at Ray when his movement caught his eye and what came next was a unexpected surprise. Jace nearly choked as he heard Ray say to Ilana, " Try not to be so formal. You look like a teenager tryin' to buy her first box of tampons." Jace forced himself to suppress a laugh as he remembered this crew reminded him of his squad during the war the scouts always joked and cracked on each other until danger and that is when everyone had each others back, in his opinion that's when you know you got a good group. After Ilana replied she focused on the woman behind the counter.

Jace looked at the woman behind the counter and just shrugged as he nudged Ray and quietly whispered, "There you go Ray get you some of that." Jace snickered quietly and began watching the door hoping the woman hadn't heard cause he still wished to purchase some things.

Leaning back relaxing he just thought to himself how he liked joking with the crew Ray and Ilana were amusing and so way Jay, he didn't much joke with Lulah she still hadn't gotten used to him or at least Jace didn't think so and Marcus wasn't very social towards Jace and he didn't find much use in being social either.

[Jay Fuller]

Jay had climbed onto the mule with the rest of the crew not too long ago. They were waiting to go and Jay was staring out at the vast expanse of city. From here it looked bright and hazy, and he knew that going in it would get steadily dirtier. It wasn't clean like the cities of the Core, and sometimes Jay longed for the glamour and shine that came with what most people called "civilization." But he also knew that that world was what he left on Paquin. Or, at least that city mindset. His parents were very high maintenance. For coming from a father who sided with the Independents, they had a similar mindset as some Alliance. Jay snorted to himself. Even after all this time, people were drawing lines between who was Independent and Alliance.

Alliance or Browncoat, he was glad he left his parents world overall.

Jay was lost in thought up in his own thoughts up until they reached the Rat's Pack, where Ilana was looking to apparently procure some not-easily-procured items. The place itself didn't look too shady, which surprised Jay. When you hear about these types of areas, you have that image of dark and dangerous but this was not that. He supposed that was often for life. They entered the small establishment (it certainly didn't look small from the outside) and Jay began wondering how suspicious it might be that a crew of six was waltzing into the store. Ilana introduced herself and was very formal about it. Huh, Jay thought to himself, I was thinking it wouldn't be that easy.

Ray commented on Ilana's formality, causing a snort of a laugh out of Jay. He just barely heard it, but that was probably because he was standing behind the two.

Then Jace walked up and Jay heard him mumble to Ray, "There you go Ray get you some of that." Jay assumed that he was talking about the attractiveness of the woman by the counter. He glanced to Jace and then back to the woman behind the counter. He pondered that, how he couldn't really understand the feelings most men had toward women. He also wondered if there was anyone in the 'Verse who felt the same way as him. In a small crew, it felt impossible though logic rejected that. Jay made a mental note to maybe bring it up to Ilana later. She might be one of the few of the crew who might not look at him like a crazy man for being sly.

[The Delamater Twins]

Alexis looked up to see as a group of people entered into the front of the shop. They were on the opposite side of the counter from her, and she didn’t get up to greet them or smile. She just looked up waiting for them to say what they wanted. It was a usual thing, since most people that came through there knew what they had in mind, and Alexis didn’t know any of them.

They were apparently people who worked for the recently departed ‘Longstreet’. ”Shit, that’s right, Longstreet’s dead.” Alexis opened with, being reminded of something she kept forgetting. ”Sorry, we used to run some items off world through his trading post in Bellforge.” She explained. ”Took three days before we actually heard the news and had to send it off somewhere else.”

The little mix up had actually come up twice, since they had several things they wanted to ship, and they forgot Longstreet’s post was inoperable twice that week. It was a sort of commentary on what happened to the ‘Twins’ mindset when it came to things that were beyond their premises, which was ninety percent of their business.

”But sure, lets take a look here.” She put her finger down on the listed, turned it, and slid it over to herself. She looked it over nodding her head as he she slid her finger down. ”Yeah, we got most a this.” Alexis wasn’t one hundred percent sure for the smaller items but she was fairly certain. ”I mean the rifle could cost a lot depending on what you’re looking for.”

Alexis took the cigarette out of her mouth and a haze of light smoke came out of her mouth as she slid the list back. She remained sitting on the stool and looked over the others. ”Is that all you’re lookin’ for?” She asked, since it was easier when she knew exactly what people were looking for, rather then having them all browse around the endless amount of shelves for whatever they wanted.

[Ilana Logan]

She heard a little snort of laughter come from Jay and she fought the urge to snap something rude under her breath at him. When Jace commented on the woman behind the counter toward Ray she could tell he was being sarcastic. He had also been quiet, so she didn't think the woman had heard him, but she'd have to remind him to keep a more.... civil tongue when speaking to people they were trying to do business with.

Of course, she had been guilty of exactly the same thing when they had hired Lulah. She still felt as though the girl had deserved it, but she also understood now why the others got so pissed off about it. Not only that, she'd been trying pretty hard to not be quite so temperamental since Marcus had handed control over to her. She still got pissed off, but she was working on biting her tongue instead of someone's head off.

It wasn't really about what she had done anyway. It was definitely a do as I say, not as I do situation. Every word spoken by a member of the crew affects the entire crew's relationship with that person. She understood that now, but before being on this crew she'd never had to worry about things like that, so she'd never tried to change. Now she had to.

Ilana sighed softly, thinking of how off course her thoughts had taken her, and returned her attention back to the woman behind the counter once again.

”Shit, that’s right, Longstreet’s dead,” the woman said with only slightly less than the average rim person's level of tact. ”Sorry, we used to run some items off world through his trading post in Bellforge. Took three days before we actually heard the news and had to send it off somewhere else.”

”But sure, lets take a look here,” the woman went on. She put her finger on the list, turned it, and slid it over to herself. She ran her finger down the list, nodding as she did so. ”Yeah, we got most a this. I mean the rifle could cost a lot depending on what you’re looking for. Is that all you’re lookin’ for?”

"I'm not concerned with the price of the gun, though I have a photo of what I want," Ilana said, sliding the photo of the gun across the counter. "Everything on that list is all I need, but I'm sure the others have a few things they'd like to pick up."

---

Gun photo